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12 December 2008

Air travel takes a dive

The holiday season is normally all about travel. However, the 2008 holiday season could be a different story. U.S. airlines, according to the Air Transport Association of America, are excepted to have a drop in the number of people who will be flying this season by about 9 percent. Flights are still expected to be full, despite the drop in customers. This is most likely due to the fact that airlines have actually cut 9 percent of the seats per flight in response to the dwindling customer numbers.

To most people, this will not come as a shock. The overall demand for air travel has been on the decline for several months, and they expected that the holiday season would not be much different. In fact, many airlines went to reduced flight schedules after being faced with extremely high jet fuel prices earlier in the year. Group studies have been done, and only 43 million Americans are expected to travel by way of air this holiday season. It's important to note that this is the seventh monthly drop in airline customers when compared to last years numbers.

For those of you who are still looking to travel by way of air, there is good news. With the decline in the number of people flying, there comes a few benefits, like less crowed airports and on time flights. In fact, many U.S. airlines have actually shown improvement in their arrival record from last year. Officials of the airline industry have also stated that they are looking to really focus their attention on efficiency this season.